Hello, my name is Jin Saotome and I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to educate you on a condition, nay, a disease that you may or may not know about. The symptoms are very easy to spot. There’s loose, uncontrollable discharge from the mouth and/or fingertips, reddening of the face and chest, an inability to properly form meaningful sentences, and most commonly tunnel vision. It can strike at any time, anywhere, and quite often happens while you’re sitting at the computer posting something. It’s called F.I.M.D., and I’ve been suffering from it since… hmmm, *checks the foot of his ML Magneto* oh about 2003. Yes, I have the illness, but fortunately it’s treatable and today I’ve finally overcome it. It was cured pretty quick too… right about the time I called up Jesse Falcon (product manager of ToyBiz, now Marvel Toys) at his home and apologized. Yes, my long, drawn-out battle with foot-in-mouth-disease was finally over.
However I’d like to make a public apology to not just Jesse, but everyone at Marvel Toys for giving them crap over the last four years about their Marvel legends line. Guys, gals, I’m sorry for being an ass and just not getting it. I’d look at a ML figure and see all the little nitpicks, oddities. I’d question why that character, why that mix of costumes, why I got an Easter-bunny Ultron. And then I’d fix it by customizing that particular piece or making my own character. I always thought they were capable of making the figures better but just didn’t put their full effort into it. I could go over my long list of gripes but that’s not important.
The fact is, Jesse and the rest of ToyBiz couldn’t of made them better. Back then they were doing the absolute best they could with what they had to work with. You know that ML 3 Magneto, the one with the Iron Man body? They didn’t have enough money to have a completely new sculpt so they had to reuse the main parts. But Jesse wanted to make a whole new Mags, they just couldn’t. Back then; the demographics for ML were crazy. Only after year 2 of ML did they actually start showing that 80% of the buyers were over 18, aiming them towards the realization that it was a collector/fan driven.
But they had been burned on fan-poll-choices before. Remember the ‘Marvel’s Most Wanted’ with Spat & Grovel, Blink, and X-man? They sat on the shelves and were some of their worst sellers. Toybiz was really edgy on making all the characters obscure so we got our Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine in every wave. Yes, now things have changed and we’d go ga-ga over a Blink figure, but it just wasn’t the right time back then. They did the best they could. Ideally Jesse said he’d want to work on one series… six figures, not a line, for a year. That would get out all the factory kinks, perfect out the paint apps, give the sculptors enough time, and we’d be blessed with a series without problems. Yeah, we get 5 series in a year and they’re still damn good, ToyBiz was humming.
So my whining about them making the Legendary Heroes line (the new one coming out with the Pitt, Dredd, etc) was unfounded. Jesse couldn’t make ML like that back then. Remember my gripe about the non-artist-specific characters and mixed-up costumes? He told me that they didn’t want to put line-for-line limits on their sculptors. “Do this and do it exactly like this.” would stifle them, and the best work came from when they could add their own artistic touches in. I always thought they made Cable’s non-specific costume for kids or so nothing would match the comics so all the figures matched. Now it’s flip-flopped with the Legendary Heroes line. Jesse is challenging the sculptor’s skill to match the artwork line-for-line. It’s finally time for the Legendary Heroes line and they have to look that good. It needs fan support that means me. So I apologize for complaining about that.
Well, my shoes taste good now that I’ve put a little ketchup on them. Jesse and I are on decent terms and the guy is cool, he doesn’t hold a grudge. I asked him questions about Hasbro doing ML and I’m convinced they know what they’re doing. Series 1 as he told me, happened right at the change-over. Let’s call it their work-out-the-kinks line. They’re going to be using Jesse’s favorite factory in China for the next series and up, the one that produces the best paint-ops and tight joints! Hasbro has ML planned up till the end of 08, and holy crap… Jesse and the gang listened to the fans. After hearing some of the figures and stuff they have planned, I take back what I said about them not listening to the fans and whining about never seeing characters remade better down the line. They’re righting past ‘oopsies’ and while I’m not going to give away what’s going to be shown at Toy Fair, I was pleased when Jesse told me about a character that was being remade with utra-attention to what the fans wanted to see.
Huge, monster, ginormous apology over! If anyone wants to see me at the SDCC and rub it in as to what a jerk I’ve been, I’ll be hanging out with Jesse at the Marvel Booth. Don’t pass up the Legendary Heroes line, it sounds really cool and I’m so stoked we’ll be able to find it in regular stores! And Toy Fair is going to rock… oh yes. Catcha later peoples!
now i wish these were 6inch... means blackcat is gonna be the hot movie game one
squeeknessI'm a poor lost puppy
SwordOfMorningSuper Moderator
DKDetectiveBoo Boo Bubbles (he/him)
